[NSW, PC, PS4] Mistover

This game caught my attention because the art looks like the love child of Etrian Odyssey and Darkest Dungeon, with a sprinkle of Yggdra Union on top. However here in the west is digital only, and I was torn whether getting it or not...but bless Arc System Works for physical releases, albeith in Japan only. And there's even a special edition with mini artbook, wallscroll, download code for the soundtrack, and the Faust (of Guilty Gear fame) DLC included. I've gone with the Switch version, and the PS4 version should include English text as well. Mistover's also available on Steam.

But what kind of game is Mistover? Well, it's a mix of roguelike and turn-based strategy. Labyrinths are randomly generated, composed by a single floor (at least up till now), and of different sizes. Movement is tile based, with time advancing after the party takes a step or performs an action. While exploring labyrinths you need to take into account hunger (if it reaches zero the party's HP will start to fall) and luminosity. Luminosity is how far you can see around the party, and influences if monsters will get the initiative when starting combat. Chests found during exploration must be opened with the correct key (wooden key for wooden chest, silver key for silver chest, an so on), and depending on party composition you can destroy obstacles to shorten travel distances.

Exploration is kinda slow-paced, at every step you need to take into account hunger, luminosity, and monster movement. Luminosity is refilled by touching light flowers, which you need to activate by spending a small portion of party HP. As long as you hunger is above 0 the party recovers HP and skill points (for special attacks) at every step, so it's not a huge trade-off. An other way to recover luminosity is by using consummable luminuous seeds. You satiate hunger by eating food (duh). Before every expedition you can fill your bag with seeds, food, and other recovery items. During exploration you can find tainted versions of every item sold in the city: their effectiveness is greatly reduced (for example tainted food recovers only 40 hunger points against the 160 of normal rations) and there's a chance they will inflict status ailments...I particularly like when tainted food gives you confused movement (left on the d-pad moves you right, and so on) or vertigo (whole screen goes wobbly and it's difficult to discern your surroundings).

Enemy movement is a nother huge factor during exploration. Enemies appear as shadows, the size indicating if they are below, above, or at the same level of the party, and colour indicating if they are aggressive (red), docile (blue; they might also run away if they spot you), or resurrected (white). Resurrected enemies do not give experience, and with the limited resources the party can carry, you want to avoid them. Defeated enemies are resurrected after a certain number of steps taken, so careful movement planning is paramount.
The party leader also bestows some useful exploration skills, for example Paladins can demolish all obstacles next to the party in one action without losing HP; other classes have to deal with obstacles one by one at the expense of some HP.
Bushes (or similar tiles) can hide you from monsters, but the same goes for monsters as well.

Once you get into a fight, the perspective shifts to a screen divided into two 3x3 grids, one for the party and one for enemies. Grid position of the attacker and defender influences available attacks and skills: for example Sisters can only use heal spells if they are not on the front line, and most fighter classes only have one attack when in the rear. Positioning on the grid is also important because units learn special attacks that require someone next to them, and these attacks are particularly useful; my Werewolf needs a Paladin on his side to execute a pretty powerful area attack; the Sister needs a Shadowblade in front of her for an area attack with stun properties.
If a unit has its HP lowered to zero, it will enter limbo: it will be dead in three turns, and if hit during these three turns, it'll die. It will also die under certain conditions, which you can check during that unit's turn. You can bring back units from limbo by healing them (although rare, healing can kill a limboed unit...so check that conditions!) or completing combat.
All units are sturdy, with plenty of HP: even units that should be glass cannons like Shadowblades and Ronins can withstand a number of fierce attacks before going down, which was a surprise...but when someone dies, it's gone forever. The equipment used by that unit becomes cursed and if at least one unit can make it out of the dungeon, you can recover it.
Combat is not as tense as in other dungeon crawlers even with this permadeath, and a lot of fights were more annoying than anything else. Enemies share your unit's sturdiness, and actions that can stun have a high probability of doing so (80%) at level one. My party is built around stunning enemies to deny their turn, and it has worked pretty well for the three locations (and at least five dungeons each) I've been through.
Mistover really, really, really likes combat tokens. What are those, you ask? Well, for example Shadowblades accumulate power markers for each successful attack; the more markers they have, the more powerful one of the special attacks is. Then some attacks can brand units, and other attacks that have additional effects on branded enemies. You have status buffs, status debuffs, in addition to bleeding (Mistover's name for poison), stun, and others.
At times it's overwhelming to see so many icons on top of someone's health bar, and most of the times I don't really care. These icons might give the party an edge, but you need to crosscheck if units, their attacks, their and the enemy's position allows you to take advantage of that. My solution was just to spam the most powerful attacks I could against the most troublesome enemies first.

There aren't that many classes available: Paladin, Sister, Shadowblade, Werewolf, Hexer, Witch, Onmiouji, and Ronin. All of them have a small repertoire of attacks, which can be improved by spending points you get by levelling up. New combination skills are learned at random, while other skills must be learnt from someone who already knows them.
Available classes and the skills they have are generated at random every time you exit a dungeon.
To do so you first go to the recruitment center and hope that someone with the skill you want is available, then pay money to recruit it, then spend 1 level-up point with the unit you want the skill on. Sounds complicated, but it's not as cumbersome as you might think, and it also forces you to work with what you have. I had a Witch dying on me, but there were no replacements available, so I went with a Shadowblade. That Shadowblade died at level 5, and it was a huge blow to the party. I recruited a second Shadowblade who had completely different special attacks, and I discovered that some of the skills this second Shadowblade had were more useful than the first.

And I haven't written about jinxes, equipment fusion, or books to improve things...and I won't, otherwise this post will get waaaaaay too long.
I'm playing the game mostly handholding the Switch, and Mistover has definite advantage over Darkest Dungeon: the interface is designed with console pads in mind and everything can be accessed easily without convoluted button combinations. The interface is also much more readable, though small details like the teleport tiles in the cathedral are kinda hard to discern on the Switch's small screen...but it's still way better than Tiny Metal or Darkest Dungeon.

Mistover is a competent dungeon crawler that could use a bit of polish in some areas, and if you like this kind of game, you'll have some fun with it. It's not a masterpiece, but good enough.